Crawling Around Mauritius
My friends told me about the Black River Gorges located in a nature park in south Mauritius. So, I bought a map at the visitor center that wasn’t too far from my Mauritius luxury hotel. I pulled out my Lonely Planet book before I made the trip, and it told me that there’s nothing in the park, so I need to pack water and food. A good purchase that book; it’s come in handy way too many times.
I go to the supermarket early in the morning and get my favorite snacks and beverages. Salty and sweet, oh, I did get water too. Alright, yes, I bought a small bottle of rum, just in case I bumped into someone interesting. With my map in hand and my car hire all gassed up, off I go. I find the entrance to the nature park and locate the visitor center there. It was open, but no one was inside. So, I just grabbed a brochure and began to read. There were warnings about the pests of Mauritius, like monkeys, cats and an occasional big spider.
It was about 10am when I actually started to hike. I don’t fast walk for long, I slow way down, the place it absolutely gorgeous. There was a couple coming back the other way and they told me that there’s no passing the water fall. I decide to keep on walking and come across the Black River, I still see the path, on the other side and it looks even more astounding that were I am. So I cross the river, crawling over pebbles and boulders. I reached the other side and walked passed the benches and beautiful trees and a few streams. About an hour into my hike, I find that there is no more path. Not even a deer trail. Total wilderness. I get quiet to listen to the sounded of pure nature.
I pull out my handy brochure from the visitor center and read that many hikers tend to get lost and most get discouraged due to the amount of crawling over rocks and walking through rivers, which is more strenuous than they anticipated. Yes, this wasn’t just a simple hike through nature, it was a crawl, mostly. So, I head on back. I can see why my friends raved about Black River, but they should’ve warned me about the difficulty of the hike.
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